Video 5:51
Health funding frenzy

Health has been the election issue of the week with both sides promising more hospital beds and more money for doctors and nurses. Is it enough?

Transcript

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA, PRESENTER: From hospital waiting lists, to doctor numbers, health has been one of the election battlegrounds this week.

As Kirsten Veness reports, there are still areas that have missed out on the health funding frenzy.

KIRSTEN VENESS, REPORTER: In the border town of Echuca there's no bigger issue than the local hospital.

MALE CITIZEN: Everybody in the area is concerned about it.

KIRSTEN VENESS: Echuca's sister town went to the extreme of changing its name to Motown for a month as part of the Movember campaign to raise awareness about men's health.

PETER MITCHELL, MOVEMBER PARTICIPANT: Do I look as bad as I feel?

KIRSTEN VENESS: The campaign also has locals thinking about their own health facilities.

PETER MITCHELL: It's a bit of a disgrace. I have my mother in law there at the moment. She suffered a stroke and the facilities are just archaic.

KIRSTEN VENESS: With the first patient treated at the Echuca hospital in 1882, it's a piece of the town's history.

DR CLAIRE GOODMAN, ECHUCA HOSPITAL CAMPAIGN: You have difficulties moving beds from room to room, a lot of the lifting equipment required to help patients bathe don't fit in the showers.

Dr Goodman says it's been nearly 50 years since the hospital received any new beds.

CLAIRE GOODMAN: The brown brick building is where five of our emergency cubicles are located.

KIRSTEN VENESS: And what are they like? Is it quite old?

CLAIRE GOODMAN: Yeah, the building itself is quite old, that's the building that was built in 1882.

KIRSTEN VENESS: Doctors say there are holes in the walls, loose tiles and peeling paint, making hygiene difficult.

Most alarming is this, a white ants nest at the doorway to the hospital kitchen. It was removed just last month.

CLAIRE GOODMAN: If there's too much in one part of the hospital, there are termites through quite a lot of it. So we're not asking for funding that's not required. Our hospital will fall down.

KIRSTEN VENESS: But the town falls into the very safe seat of Rodney, held by the National Party since 1917.

The Australian Medical Association says the Echuca hospital is just one example of ad hoc health funding.

DR HARRY HEMLEY, AMA VICTORIA: It's really if you're my friend, I'll give you some money, if you're in a marginal seat, I'll give you something there. I'd like to see a real plan for the future for Victoria.

KIRSTEN VENESS: In Melbourne, as the population grows, it's the suburban hospitals that are feeling the pressure. The AMA says at the Maroondah Hospital, in the city's east, admissions have gone up by 25 per cent over the past three years.

HARRY HEMLEY: On top of all that promised already, we need 187 beds per year for the next 10 years just to keep up, just to tread water.

KIRSTEN VENESS: The AMA says it's this lack of beds that's having a direct impact on ambulance response times.

HARRY HEMLEY: The ambulance arrives, there's no beds available in the emergency department, no beds available in the wards. As a result of that, you call an ambulance, there's none available because they're all ramped up waiting to deliver patients. This is a common problem across Victoria.

DAVID DAVIS, OPPOSITION HEALTH SPOKESMAN: We've said very much that we need additional paramedics and we brought forward a significant package, $151 million package that will deal with a lot of these issues.

DANIEL ANDREWS, HEALTH MINISTER: We've tripled the ambulance budget, more than doubled the number of ambulance paramedics on the road.

KIRSTEN VENESS: Daniel Andrews certainly hasn't been short for health announcements this year. The major funding winners include the Box Hill and Bendigo hospitals, as well as a cancer city at the Austin hospital, making the Government in some quarters very popular indeed.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (SINGING): I love you. I honestly love you.

KIRSTEN VENESS: The issue of health has heated up this week, with either a Labor or Coalition promise nearly every day.

The Coalition's major pledge is for 800 new beds and a 12 year plan. While the Government's announced a $1.5 billion package to boost doctor and nurse numbers.

NATIONAL PARTY POLITICIAN: More staff, it needs greater transparency, it needs better systems.

This is fully funded, budgeted and accounted for. It will be fully, funded, budgeted and accounted for.

More staff, better systems, greater transparency.

KIRSTEN VENESS: But not all messages can be controlled, with headlines like this.

Freedom of information figures show more than 200,000 Victorians are on hospital outpatient waiting lists. Far more than on the official elective surgery lists.

DAVID DAVIS: We think those waiting lists before the waiting list should be public.

DANIEL ANDREWS: The waiting list today is substantially lower than it was in 1999, despite the fact that Victoria has grown, Victoria is ageing.

KIRSTEN VENESS: As for Echuca, they're still waiting. They have a plan to develop the hospital, but neither side has committed enough money to make it happen.

DANIEL ANDREWS: There are clearly areas where we can improve at the Echuca hospital. That's exactly why the government allocated $14 million to support both improved facilities in the emergency department and additional beds and community rehab space.

DAVID DAVIS: I have to say the Echuca hospital and a number of other country hospitals have got very strong cases. There's no question that renewal is needed.

KIRSTEN VENESS: Echuca health declined an interview, but says it's pleased with the progress being made by the Department of Health.

CLAIRE GOODMAN: I think management are in a difficult position. Obviously they're quite keen for funding and redevelopment, as everybody in the community is. By the same token, they may be nervous about upsetting those that are going to provide the funding.